Sunday, February 03, 2008
Editorial: Fly ash dirties Giles schools
The school board should assert control or distance itself.
From the RoundTable blog
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It is a classic public relations gambit. People are railing against a project. They don't want, say, an environmentally risky waste site on the banks of the New River. The solution for the project's supporters: Trot out the children.
Giles County School Board members have allowed the backers of a risky fly ash dump along the New River to trade on their good name. The board needs to exert greater control over the Giles County Partnership for Excellence or divorce public schools from what has become a controversial private project.
The partnership claims it exists to "enrich the quality of education for the youth of Giles County." That is a noble aspiration to be sure, but whether the partnership takes it seriously is debatable.
It primarily seems to focus on creating a dump near Narrows. Appalachian Power Co. would put coal waste there, building up the property from the 100-year flood plain along the river and creating 7 developable acres.
A number of citizens oppose the plan for a variety of reasons, not least because the dump would be neither lined nor monitored. Hazardous chemicals could leak into the river without anyone knowing.
Proceeds from an eventual sale, the partnership says, would go to schools. Indeed, more than a decade ago, there were supposed to be strong ties between the partnership and the schools. Five members of the partnership's board of directors were supposed to be school board appointees.
These days, the school board does not know what is going on with the partnership and it does not have those five representatives. Yet the partnership claims to exist to serve the schools.
Only the school board can hold it to that pledge. The board could start by demanding its five seats on the board of directors. It could then put the breaks on the ash site and address public concerns about it.
Alternatively, the schools can formally split with the partnership. Thank it for whatever services it provided over the years, but clearly inform it that it no longer may claim association with the county's public education mission.
School board members, we hope, do not want their legacy associated with a project that someday could pollute the river. Now is the time to take control or withdraw.
